FOTP 2013 Full Report

police officer who was blocking him from photographing a protest in Baku in May. Aneyewitness reported that police officers destroyed Huseynov’s camera after he swore at them.Prison conditions remained dire for journalists, with routine ill-treatment and denial of medicalcare, leading the Council of Europe to adopt a resolution calling for the release of politicalprisoners in June. Editor in chief Hilal Mammadov of the minority-language newspaper TolishiSedo, who was arrested in June on charges of high treason and inciting hatred, reported inhumantreatment and torture in custody, but his complaint was rejected. While no journalists weremurdered in Azerbaijan in 2012, impunity for past cases of murder or serious physical attacksremained the norm.In recent years, the government has significantly increased its monitoring of internetactivity and its harassment of social-media activists and online journalists and bloggers. Socialmediaplatforms such as Facebook and Twitter are often used to air critical opinions of thegovernment, and Azerbaijan’s vibrant blogosphere has become a forum for government critics tovoice their opposition and illuminate subjects that are often ignored in the mainstream media. Asthe country prepared to host the 7th Internet Governance Forum in November 2012, PresidentAliyev claimed publicly that the internet in Azerbaijan is “free” because the government does notengage in censorship of content, as in some other countries. While content blocking is relativelyrare in Azerbaijan, authorities frequently use other methods to intimidate activists and journalistswho express criticism online. In March 2012, Khadija Ismayilova, an independent journalist andcontributor to RFE/RL’s Azeri service, became a victim of attempted blackmail when shereceived an anonymous letter threatening the release of a video of her having sex with herboyfriend if she did not stop her investigative reporting on the president’s family. Ismayilovaexposed the blackmail attempt on her social media accounts, and one week later the video wasposted to a fake news site whose web address falsely indicated a connection to the oppositionMusavat party. The police launched an investigation that—according to the journalist—focusedmore on her private life than a genuine search for the perpetrators. In April, the prosecutor’soffice issued a statement that revealed little progress on the case, but provided the names andpersonal information of those who were interviewed during the investigation, mostlyIsmayilova’s close friends and family. Through her own investigation, Ismayilova discoveredthat the video had been filmed with hidden cameras that were installed inside her apartment withthe help of a telephone company.Journalists are regularly harassed in the autonomous exclave of Nakhchivan, which isseparated from the rest of the country by Armenia. The media have also suffered as a result ofAzerbaijan’s conflict with Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. In August2012, former military officer Ramil Safarov, who had been convicted of murdering an Armenianofficer at an international training camp in Hungary in 2004, was allowed to return toAzerbaijan, where Aliyev granted him a pardon. State media initially celebrated the hero’swelcome he received with extensive coverage of his appearances at official events. However, thecoverage halted abruptly due to international and domestic criticism of the fanfare, and Safarovdisappeared from the public spotlight. Foreign reporters have faced abuses in the country. InMay 2012, a group of Norwegian journalists were held at the airport in Baku and harassed inconnection with a series they recorded during the Eurovision Song Contest that the Azerbaijaniauthorities found offensive.State dominance of the media continues to harm diversity and pluralism. Ownership ofprint outlets is reserved mainly for government officials or the ruling party, although severalopposition parties operate newspapers as well. The broadcast media are almost entirely in the78